Jomtien Beach Road seen
from Dongtan Police station - officials cancelled plans to convert the
road to one-way, at least until after the high season.
Urasin Khantaraphan
Pattaya officials abruptly canceled plans to turn Jomtien Beach
Road into a one-way street, citing possible tourist confusion during
high season.
Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh announced on Nov. 13 - the day after the
one-way system was supposed to begin as a one-month test project - that
the new traffic plan was dropped due to the anticipated start of
construction of a subterranean Central Road bypass under Sukhumvit Road.
Nearly two kilometers of Sukhumvit will be affected during the initial
phase of construction, which had been expected to start this month. One
lane of traffic will be closed and drivers encouraged to use alternate
routes, including the railway access road, Thepprasit Road and Soi
Chaiyapruek in Jomtien Beach, Ronakit said.
Soi Chaiyapruek would receive all the southbound traffic that would
normally flow on Beach Road if the Jomtien traffic plan had been
implemented.
Ronakit and Pattaya Police admitted the city does not have enough
traffic officers to manage the Sukhumvit detours and the fallout from
the change to one-way, so the plan was dropped.
Neither the start of tunnel construction nor the onset of high season
was a surprise, however. Local officials who announced the one-month,
one-way test Aug. 26 knew both were coming. But the project was approved
anyway in October during a closed-door meeting between Banglamung
District Chief Sakchai Taengho and local officials, police and
businesses.
If implemented, traffic would have flowed one-way from the Hanuman curve
to Soi Chaiyapruek Road, a distance of two kilometers. Traffic would
have moved south toward Sattahip and loop at Chaiyapruek Road.
Northbound traffic would have run along Jomtien Second Road. There would
be only three wide and five minor sois providing connections between
Beach and Second roads.
Sakchai justified the idea at the Aug. 26 meeting by saying the move -
done decades ago on Pattaya Beach Road - would double the number of
lanes vehicles can use and allow tour buses, minivans and taxis to stop
without blocking half the traffic lanes.
Attendees at that meeting - who included residents, minivan operators,
the Pattaya Business & Tourism Association and Prasert Jaikla, of the
14th Military Circle - raised numerous objections to the proposal.
They pointed out that, unlike Pattaya, where Second Road is located
relatively close to Beach Road, the main connections between Jomtien
Beach and Second roads are the much-longer Chaiyapruek and Bunkachana
streets. That, they said, will make transit times much longer and more
difficult.
The road clearly was not ready for the change. On Nov. 13, Beach Road at
the Hanuman intersection was littered with cars parked illegally on both
sides of the street, presumably residents from a 30-story condominium
there.
Tourists on Dongtan Beach said they were relived the change was not
made, as they would have had to take a taxi through Jomtien Beach and
back along Second Road, costing them time and money.
Others said it would have caused more traffic and congestion on side
streets.
Another problem is that the road from Soi Chaiyapruek to the Lung Wai
Restaurant is narrow and still used as two-way road, which would have
caused a severe traffic jam. Moreover, the drainage pipe-laying project
on Chaiyapruek Road has not been completed, causing its own traffic
woes.
Officials said they will meet again with police to better plan the
one-way idea, although they said it likely would return in early 2015.
However, the tunnel project will run for the next three years and high
season doesn’t end until April.
